Harris County says state erred with lists of 'dead' voters

The Harris County Attorney's office on Tuesday defended Tax Assessor-Collector Don Sumners' decision not to purge presumed-dead voters from the rolls until after the November election, and accused the secretary of state's office of not following the law in providing a list of 9,000 such voters to the county.

About 72,800 voters statewide have received or will receive letters telling them records suggest they may be dead and that they must act within 30 days to stay on the rolls. The list was generated by the secretary of state using the Social Security Administration's master death file, as outlined in a new state law.

"The notice from the secretary of state did not make the required determination that the voters on the list were deceased," County Attorney Vince Ryan said, adding that two of his attorneys received the letters. "This action by the Texas secretary of state is outrageous, wrong, and unlawful."

Ryan also said the state cannot force Sumners, as the county voter registrar, to send the letters.

A spokesman for Secretary of State Hope Andrade disagreed, saying the office followed the law and that the provision requiring the office to verify a voter's death before notifying the counties has been superseded by a more recent law.

Imagine that. A republican TAC in Harris actually standing up to the Republican Secretary of State and protecting voter's rights in Harris.

The republican voter suppression in the rest of the state will go on of course.

1. There's a pretty low likelyhood of dead people showing up at polls to vote.

2. I'm with you on that one

But to Texas republicans - it's just one more way to shave 5-7 points off the election. Targeting individuals they feel might vote. Never mind they're not dead. The story actually points out that two attorney's in the county office got the "you're dead" letters. That's the kind of shoddy work Texas does to fact check.

4. Letter from TDP Chair Hinojosa

I have been hearing troubling reports from around the state and described in the attached news article regarding voters who have received letters telling them that they are dead when they are in fact very much alive. I am very disturbed that your office instructed local voter registrars to send over 80,000 of such letters so close to an election using what appears to be faulty data. If this problem had gone undetected, thousands of eligible voters could have been disenfranchised.

Can you please confirm for me that the decision by Harris County to not actually purge these voters from the voter registration list is the policy throughout the state? What measures is your office taking to ensure that every county voter registrar complies with this policy and that no voters who were included in that faulty list of over 80,000 are removed from the voter rolls? What procedures are to be followed if a voter has already been removed from the rolls due to faulty “deceased” data and shows up to vote?

Please respond to this request in writing without delay. I am hopeful that your office is doing its due diligence to correct this problem. If not, the Texas Democratic Party will not hesitate to take legal action to ensure that live, eligible voters will not be deprived of their right to vote.